A Grand Gesture
by nburgin
Summary: Tired of Judy's obliviousness to his romantic advances, Nick tries to make his feelings for Judy clear by getting her a special birthday present. How will she respond?


**Author's Notes are at the bottom.**

Nick had never felt more special than he did when he was around Judy. They'd known each other for a little bit less than a year, yet it felt like he'd known her forever. In the short time they'd been together, she completely shattered his cynical worldview and inspired him to turn his life around. She was someone he could truly let his guard down around like never before, and they'd shared their darkest secrets with each other.

They were inseparable, spending almost no time apart either on or off the job. Simply being around her brought him a sense of safety and contentment that he had never known before. After a while, it became clear to him that he was in love with her.

As happy as he was with the relationship, deep down it bothered him that he was uncertain about whether or not she felt exactly the same way about him. He normally prided himself on being good at reading others, but from what he could gather, Bunnyburrans generally gave out affection less sparingly and less selectively than the type of mammals he was used to dealing with. This made it difficult for him to interpret her behavior.

On the one hand, it was clear that she really enjoyed his company, and she was never sparing when it came to giving out hugs. In fact, she was generally very uninhibited about seeking close contact with him, having more than once fallen asleep in his arms while they watched a late-night movie at his apartment.

On the other hand, he never in any context heard her refer to him as anything other than a "friend" or a "partner". And seeing as she was a rabbit, he would have expected her to make the first move when it came to more… _sensual_ pursuits, but she never did. In fact, she never really gave any sign of being attracted to him at all.

Over the past couple of weeks, he had been dropping a series of decreasingly subtle hints about how he felt about her and that he'd like to take their relationship to the next level, but she didn't seem to pick up on any of them. Even when he, on multiple occasions, brought out the "L-Word" and straight-up told her that he loved her, her responses left him feeling unclear if she even knew exactly what he meant by it.

Nick occasionally visited Finnick in his van to reminisce about old times, and during one of those visits Nick ended up venting to him at length about this problem. After having a long, hard laugh about Nick being stuck in the "Friend Zone", Finnick decided to give his old friend some sage advice.

"Seriously, though, your problem is you're tryin' to be too subtle about it. You wanna show her you're serious about her, what you need is some kind of big romantic gesture. Sweep her off her feet, you know. Like maybe make a big show of kneeling down and presenting her with a big bouquet of roses. Yeah, roses. Make sure to get the red ones, they're supposed to symbolize _looove_ or something. The ladies just eat that stuff up."

Nick considered Finnick's advice. Judy's birthday was just a few days away; that would be a perfect time to do something like that. He decided to go for it.

On her birthday, after they got off work Nick told her that he had something special for her, and that she should meet him in central park in half an hour. While she went straight to the park, he went to pick up the flowers.

Walking up to Judy with the flowers held behind his back, he called out to her to close her eyes, which she did.

Seconds later, Judy opened her eyes to find Nick kneeling in front of her, smiling and holding out an enormous bouquet of luscious red roses. Judy's eyes lit up, and she smiled brightly as she accepted the gift.

"Ooh, I love it!"

"You do? Really?!"

Nick's heart soared. Was this really happening? Was she finally returning his feelings?!

"Yeah, this is just… wonderful! Oh, thank you so much, Nick! You're the best!"

Nick's smile widened to something far bigger than his usual smirk, and his eyes started to mist over. He gazed at her silently, just taking in the moment. Judy just stared at the roses, with a wistful, glazed-over look in her eyes.

"Oh, I can't tell you how much I love roses… Back home, my mother used to grow the most scrumptious red roses, just like these." Snapping out of it, she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, how did you even get these?! They're so expensive here, and we don't exactly make a lot of money."

"Don't worry about it, it's worth any expense just to make you happy. And anyway, there was a certain otter who was willing to give me a huge discount when he found out who it was for."

"Well anyway, Nick, I simply cannot thank you enough. Roses are my all-time favorite food, and it's just been _so long_ since I've tasted any."

Nick's smile disappeared, replaced by an expression very similar to the one he had all the way back when he realized that Judy had just tricked him into confessing to tax evasion. Fortunately Judy didn't notice, as she was too busy staring intently at the roses with a hungry look in her eyes that Nick had never seen before. She began to frantically sniff at them, causing her eyes to roll up into the back of her head and drool to appear at the edge of her mouth. She opened her mouth and bit down on a blossom, groaning with delight.

Nick closed his eyes and rested his face in his palm, trying to process what just happened.

 _What was I thinking, giving flowers to an herbivore? How could I have been so… no, I can still salvage this. I just need to come out and clearly explain what the roses were supposed to mean._

After recomposing himself enough to once again be able to speak, he began, "Actually, the roses aren't supposed to be..."

And then he once again was speechless, as when he looked up again to face Judy, he saw that _she had already chewed through half the bouquet._ What was left of it looked akin to a forest ravaged by beavers at the height of the construction season. It must have taken longer than he thought it did for him to recompose himself.

Judy looked at him inquisitively, seeming a bit confused, but still chewing.

"What?", she said through a mouthful of pulverized vegetation.

Nick emitted a long, defeated sigh, then smiled.

"You know what, never mind. Happy birthday, Carrots."

 **END**

* * *

 **Author's notes:**

Expecting a rabbit to see underlying symbolism in the act of giving her a bouquet of flowers, is like expecting a human woman to see underlying symbolism in the act of giving her a great big juicy bacon cheeseburger.

I like to imagine that the rabbits see roses about the same way most humans see lobsters: a delicious gourmet food, but much too expensive to eat on a regular basis.

If you need a visual aid to help you visualize the scene, try searching Youtube for videos of rabbits eating :)

Although it can be read as standalone, this fic was written as a prequel to my other one-shot fic, "An Awkward Conversation". Feel free to check it out, but WildeHopps shippers need to beware as they may not be happy with how it turns out.

Credit goes to niraD for providing lots of great feedback and advice for the story, including the title.


End file.
